It is a 1.2 km long, 20 m high zoned embankment with an internal clay blanket.

[3] The dam was built to provide irrigation for the Savannah Sugar Company (SSC), a large-scale sugar cane plantation and processing company set up as a joint venture between the Nigerian Federal Government and the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), London.

The CDC was managing agent for the project, and the construction contract was awarded to NECCO, a company largely owned by the government.

There have been flooding, soil erosion, destruction of farmlands and buildings, dysentry, malaria, typhoid, skin diseases and cholera.

[3] In October 2008 the United States Trade and Development Agency issued a request for proposals on constructing a 35 MW hydro-electric power plant at the dam.